Photos: Russian cargo freighter blasts off from snow-covered launch pad

SpaceX’s ground team hydraulically hoisted a 213-foot-tall Falcon 9 rocket vertical at pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center before dawn Monday ahead of a planned liftoff with a space station-bound robotic resupply craft.

Russia launched an unpiloted Progress cargo freighter Sunday from Kazakhstan, on course to deliver 2.7 tons of food, fuel, water, and supplies to the International Space Station before hauling away a no-longer-needed section of the outpost later this year to clear the way for a new laboratory module.

The U.S. military said this week it plans to award rideshare small satellite launch contracts to six U.S. companies using funds appropriated to help stabilize the defense industrial base amid the coronavirus pandemic.